Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure Matteo Salvini sits next to Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as she arrives at the Italian Senate in Rome on October 22, 2025.
Alberto Pizzoli / AFP
Prime Minister Meloni celebrated the decision saying “a Minister who defends Italy’s borders is not committing a crime, but is carrying out his duty.”
Italy’s center-right political forces welcomed a Supreme Court ruling that definitively acquitted Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini in the Open Arms case, rejecting a per saltum appeal filed by the Palermo Prosecutor’s Office. After several hours of deliberation, the justices upheld the first-instance acquittal, bringing the case to a close.
Salvini reacted on social media following the decision, stating: “Defending the borders is not a crime.”
The case dates back to 2019, when Salvini, then serving as Interior Minister, denied for several days the disembarkation of 147 migrants aboard a Spanish NGO vessel. Oscar Camps, founder of the Spanish NGO involved in the case, commented: “It’s not a technical decision, but a political one.”
Right-wing leaders Geert Wilders, Marine Le Pen and Viktor Orbán expressed public support for the Lega leader in after Palermo prosecutors filed an appeal to overturn his acquittal in the ‘Open Arms’ migrant case in July.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also commented publicly, describing the ruling as “good news” and adding: “Matteo Salvini’s definitive acquittal in the Open Arms case is good news and confirms a simple and fundamental principle: a Minister who defends Italy’s borders is not committing a crime, but is carrying out his duty. Go Matteo.”
La definitiva assoluzione di @matteosalvinimi nel caso Open Arms è una buona notizia e conferma un principio semplice e fondamentale: un Ministro che difende i confini dell’Italia non commette un reato, ma svolge il proprio dovere. Forza Matteo. pic.twitter.com/wELsv1DI7U
In the Senate, Meloni called for applause in response to the verdict, saying: “I would like to begin these very brief replies by asking for applause for Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini’s acquittal on the unfounded charge of kidnapping and for the definitive affirmation of the principle that an Interior Minister who defends Italy’s borders is doing his job and nothing more.”
Salvini’s defense attorney, Giulia Bongiorno, expressed satisfaction with the outcome. “The word satisfaction expresses what I feel right now. This is a trial that shouldn’t have even begun, and this definitive solution underscores what I argued in court,” she said.
Courts across Europe are trying to punish conservative politicians for making common sense decisions. This time, ultimately, justice prevailed. But politically motivated trials have been running rampant in Italy, since the judicial system has been untouched by reform for ages. Prime Minister Meloni took it upon herself to make the country’s court system less political, creating a court system that does not pose as the invincible vanguard of liberal ideology.
Zolta Győri is a journalist at europeanconservative.com.
